A UNITY consular exercise to manage crises and to consolidate the response procedures in case of delicate situations that involve Romanian citizens from abroad was launched in Chișinău on September 6. The exercise is staged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania through the Consular Department and is hosted in Moldova by the General Inspectorate for Emergencies, IPN reports.

Attending the launch, Raed Arafat, secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, said a train accident with a lot of victims, dead and seriously injured persons, who will include Romanian citizens and citizens of other European states, will be simulated in Chișinău. When the accident is reported, the specialized services of Moldova will intervene the first and Romania will provide assistance later. “It is an exercise to test the cooperation method in emergencies and at the consular level between Romania and the Republic of Moldova so as to establish all the working procedures in the future,” stated the secretary general.

Romania’s Ambassador to Moldova Daniel Ioniță said the exercise is held here for the first time and complements the cooperation between Moldova and Romania. The improvement of cooperation in crisis management will help save lives. “By this exercise, we want to learn to be prepared for extreme situations,” stated the ambassador.

The head of the General Inspectorate for Emergencies Mihail Harabagiu said the Romanian colleagues’ initiative is useful to the Republic of Moldova as it teaches a lot.

New informatics systems of the integrated platform E-Cons, which serves the consular network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, will be used during the accident response procedures.